


Kicked to the Curb

by orphan_account



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Awkward Crush, Confused pining, Confusion, M/M, Mentioned Sickness, Mentioned addiction, Nuka-World Amusement Park (Fallout), Pining, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27414238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Porter Gage, after a little falling out with Overboss Riot, gets kicked out.He spends a while thinking, waiting, almost dying, even.But when he realizes something, his relationship with the boss is completely flipped.He's in love.
Relationships: Porter Gage & Mason (Fallout 4), Porter Gage/Male Sole Survivor
Kudos: 13





	Kicked to the Curb

**Author's Note:**

> howdy folks!  
> this entire fic is a fucking mess.  
> the swear words are censored solely because i wrote this during school.  
> it was written in chunks and is totally wack  
> it's also super ooc
> 
> have fun, partner!

“You’re an addict.”

Gage’s voice echoed through the grille, bouncing off the broken walls. It made Riot chuckle.

“And you’re stating a pretty well known fact, Gage.” He replied, picking at the scabs on his knuckles and rolling his eyes.

“Boss, I don’t wanna control your life or nothing, but it’s affecting your performance. I saw the way you kept hesitating at the bottling plant, and you can’t keep doing that.” Gage walked closer, furrowing his brows.

“I.. wasn’t hesitating. I was pretty tired that day. We’d just taken on Safari Adventure just the day before.” Riot’s voice hesitated for a moment.

“See, there it is again. You’re hesitating, and then you’re playing it off.” Gage’s expression flipped from concerned to angry in a moment.

Riot stood up, balled his fists, and shouted, 

“Get out, Gage! If you’re going to judge me about my choices, maybe you’re not fit to be the second-in-command to a raider boss.”

Gage blinked. The boss rarely raised his voice, and never at Gage directly. It made something akin to rage rise in Gage’s throat.

“Alright, boss, see what it’s like without me.” He snapped, creeping out the Fizztop.

\-------

For the next three days, Gage was alone. He sat around Nuka Town and the cleared parks, but never with other people. In his mind, the raiders around him weren’t worth his company. He knew it was kind of cowardly to hide from his problems, but it didn’t matter. He could handle it.

“Hey, Porter.” A voice said, suddenly beside him. Mason plopped down on a half-broken chair and grinned. Gage groaned.

“Why in the hell are you bothering me, Mason?” He growled.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just trying to hang out with the boss’ little minion.” Mason kept smiling, popping open a bottle of Nuka-Grape and taking a sip.

“I don’t got any information on what the boss plans next, if that’s what you're after.” Gage replied, shrugging. Mason laughed.

“Nah, nah. I’m not trying nothing today, Gage. Just wanted someone to talk to besides the mutts in my gang.” Mason gestured to a small group of Pack members griping with each other. Gage quietly snorted.

“I guess I can survive a conversation with you, just for today. Besides, I ain’t got anything else to do.” At that, Mason’s eyes widened a little and he smiled wider.

“What? Did the boss kick you out or something?” He asked, clearly trying to contain his guffaws. Gage hesitated, looking at the ground for a moment before replying.

“No- I mean, yes, but- shut up, Mason.” He stuttered out, crossing his arms and looking away.

“Holy hell, Porter. I really didn’t think you could get on his bad side. Guess I was wrong, though, wasn’t I?” Mason slapped his knee.

“I said to shut up. I got kicked out, yeah, but he’ll see what he’s missing when he tries to get through Kiddie Kingdom without me.”

\--------

Another two weeks, and Gage still hadn’t been let back to the boss’ side. It was annoying and felt bored from the lack of action, but it was a waiting game, he guessed. To see who came crawling back first. And Gage wouldn’t lose.

He sat in Dry Rock Gulch, downing a bottle of whiskey and taking pot-shots at stray bloodworms. If this was all the action he was going to see while he was away, he might as well throw himself into the Pack’s dog fighting ring, he thought to himself.

“Porter Gage,” Someone called in the distance, “William Black needs to see you at the Parlor!”

Gage sighed. What could Black possibly want from him now?

Gathering his stuff and abandoning his whiskey, he headed to the Parlor at his own pace. Operators stared at him as he entered, making goosebumps rise on his arms. Though they tried to appear fancy, their outfits always scared him, just a little. 

“Gage, there you are.” William said, nodding at Gage when he came into the room. 

“What’d you need me for?” Gage asked, words a little slurred.

William cracked his knuckles and sat down in front of a small map.

“Well, in my opinion, being around too many ladies for too long is annoying. I’ve been cooped in this parlor with my sister and Lizzie for quite a while and I say, the men need to get some action.” 

Gage stared for a moment before shaking his head.

“What the hell do you mean by that, Black?”

“Mason should be here soon. I’m saying, since the Overboss decided to go off to the Commonwealth for a while, we should start clearing out Kiddie Kingdom.” The door to the Parlor opened and then closed. Mason entered the room.

“Who’s ready to take down some ghouls, huh?” Mason asked, grinning with sharp teeth. Gage had to contain another groan.

“We’re taking out all of those ghouls in Kiddie Kingdom, by ourselves?”

Both of the other men nodded.

Gage sighed and rubbed his temples.

“Let me get my ammo.”

\--------

Kiddie Kingdom smelled like rotting flesh and grease paint. That was the first thing Gage noticed as they entered, shooting down the painted ghouls charging at them.

“Is that the smell of ghouls or is that just you, Mason?” Gage joked, focusing his rifle and taking a few shots at some ghouls near the teacups.

Mason, surprisingly, laughed and joked along. William mostly remained silent, besides muttering threats to the ghouls under his breath.

They went on like that for a while, going through the funhouse and seeing the weird glowing ghoul wearing fancy clothes. It wasn’t too bad, considering they had three of them, but the ghoul bites started adding together, and well..

“Does anyone have RadAway?” Gage asked, feeling a little nauseous .

“Did you not take Rad-X or something? You know this place is basically radiation central.” Mason raised a brow. Gage looked to the ground and mumbled something about “lack of supplies.”

“You’ll be fine. It won’t take that long to finish off these damn ghouls and then you can go home and get cozy in bed.” Mason said, rolling his eyes.

That was easier said than done. The ghouls were coming in on them almost nonstop, following them everywhere and interrupting every moment of safety they thought they had. The thick radiation in the air persisted, filling Gage’s lungs with sharp stings of pain.

“Hey, uh, Mason..?” He grumbled, poking the man in the back.

“What, Porter? What is it now?” Mason bared his teeth in a seemingly joking fashion.

“I think I’m dying.” Gage coughed, and pointed to the blood he’d just spat onto his arm. 

As soon as he pointed it out, Mason sighed and pulled them into a small abandoned food booth. He pulled a few tablets of Rad-X from his belt and forced them into Gage’s hand.

“I don't have any RadAway, so this’ll have to do. Now take it before you start dying and stinking up this place even worse.” He said, while William went to check the surrounding area.

They sat for a few seconds while Gage dry swallowed the pills and coughed up some more blood.

“Hey, guys?” William called quietly from a little ways outside the booth.

“Yeah?” Gage croaked, wiping the blood away from his mouth.

“We have a problem.”

Gage poked his head up, taking a glance at the scene. 

Dozens of feral ghouls crept in a pack, led by the glowing one in a tophat from before. They snarled and sniffed the air for signs of the men, occasionally falling to the ground and struggling to get up.

“Now, my dear friends,” The glowing one said, “You must find the intruders to the park and kill them. We can’t have all our plans ruined before Rachel gets back!”

Gage seemed to choke on his own breath.

“That’s.. A lot of ferals. How the hell will we take them all?” He whispered.

William slipped back into the booth and handed some ammo to him.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t fight them off with you with us. Me and Mason can run off and escape, and you can wait it out.” William was grimacing, but Gage knew he wasn’t joking. He wouldn't joke about this.

“What the hell? You asked me to follow you out here and now you’re ditching me?” Gage spat. William just looked away.

“Mason? C’mon, man, I thought we were at least friends. You can’t leave me here.” 

Mason sighed.

“We’re both pretty sorry, Gage, but we’ve gotta go.”

Gage sat and coughed for a few minutes, watching the other men dodging the ferals and running off to Nuka Town. All while he was left to die. 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was like he was falling asleep, laying there with only the noises of lurking ghouls outside to bother him.

Actually, the noises were getting… louder? 

Gage opened his eyes and looked up. 

Peering down upon him, with bright green glowing eyes and a towering tophat, was the glowing one.

Gage almost screamed. The blood pouring down his chin as he coughed and the throbbing pain in his lungs were the only things keeping him from doing so.

“Now, what do we have here? A stray, left behind by the others, left to rot and die?” The ghoul grinned and reached into the booth. Gage tried to fight back, but his limbs felt like his bones were hollow. He kicked weakly, but the ghoul only laughed.

“It’s ironic how the radiation is what’s killing you. The same radiation that changed all of my friends, even me, into the creatures that they are now.” The ghoul’s voice was raspy and small flecks of spit hit Gage’s face once he got close enough.

“Leave me the hell alone, you-” He tried to speak, but throat burned and ached unbearably. He coughed and felt more blood drip onto his shirt. 

The ghoul pulled a sharp, shining knife from his belt, and pressed it against the bottom of Gage’s jaw. 

Gage, in a final struggle, headbutted the ghoul as hard as he could. The ghoul let go for a moment, dropping Gage to the ground and throwing a hand to his head. 

“Why, you little..” The ghoul looked down in anger and reached, once again, to grab Gage. 

But before he could finish reaching, a wave of blood hit Gage’s face and what remained of the ghoul’s head toppled to the floor.

Riot stood, not even five feet away, from the corpse, a shotgun in his hands and a bag of RadAway hanging from his shoulder. Without a word, he pulled Gage up and tossed him over his shoulder, starting to jog out of the park.

“H-hey, boss...” Gage muttered, before everything went black.

\-------

When he woke up, Gage was in bed.

Not his usual bed, no, but an unfamiliar mattress in some mostly intact abandoned building. 

Empty containers of RadAway laid on the floor beside him, along with some Stimpaks and Med-X. His arms felt sore and his lungs still burned, but he could breathe.

He thought back to what happened in Kiddie Kingdom.

Had his boss really saved him, or was it some hallucination of the radiation? 

He pulled himself up and looked around. There was a pistol and a note on a dresser.

He grabbed the pistol and put some ammo into it, for extra protection, and then picked up the note. It read,

“Hey Gage,

Don’t die.

I’m still not talking to you (because you’re an a**hole) but the least I could do was make sure you didn’t get eaten by ghouls.

You’re an idiot for following those two chumps.

Overboss Riot.”

Gage read it three times over. He was confused. If the boss could put in the effort to save his life, why couldn't he stick around for their real reunion? Did Riot really hate Gage enough to keep him from dying and just leave a note?

Gage swallowed something that felt like it was stuck in his throat. Anger, sadness, hatred? He really didn’t know. Or care, for that matter. Getting sappy over someone wasn’t meant for him.

“Gage? You in there?” A voice called from outside. Mason.

“Yeah, but that don’t mean I’m giving you permission to enter, you bastard.” He shouted back. Mason’s cackling was audible even from inside.

Mason entered anyway, smile wide and face paint freshly redone.

“You left me to die, you d**k.” Gage growled. 

“I didn’t leave you to die, Porter. I left you so I could go get the Overboss to save your a**.” Mason shrugged and kept smiling.

Gage paused. The boss hadn’t come on his own orders? Mason had asked him to?

Something felt.. Upsetting about that. Like Gage’s heart had been ripped out and stepped on, but less literal.

“Something wrong with that?” Mason asked, quirking a brow. Gage quickly shook his head.

“No, it’s just, uh.. Nothing. I’m just glad you didn’t let me die immediately, I guess.”

“Huh. I thought you’d be angrier than that, y’know? We did drag you into a ghoul-infested, irradiated part of the park and then let you lay on your deathbed.” Mason sounded like he was offering something to Gage, rather than describing his evil plans.

Gage sighed. All his mind would think about was the boss, and what he’d done. How he only saved Gage because Mason asked him politely. 

“Well, if you’re not gonna get pissy, this is no fun. I came for a fight, Gage, not a weirdly depressing show.” Mason, picking something out of his teeth, went to the door and left. 

All while Gage sat there quietly and acted like a fool.

\-------

It had been a week since he nearly died, and now Gage had a plan.

He would put the Overboss into danger.

Not real danger, nothing to really hurt him, just a bit of misfortune and Gage as the hero to save the day. Like a damsel in distress, the boss would come running back to him and they’d be a team again.

At least, that was the plan.

The first step was to get some danger. He talked to Mason for a while and worked out a deal.

The Pack would send someone to threaten the boss, maybe take him hostage, and Gage would burst in out of nowhere to rescue him.

“I’ll send Flick,” Mason said, twirling a knife in his hands, “He’s a good choice for the job.”

“Thanks, Mason. Just remember, the boss can’t be in real danger.”

“Yeah, alright. Just one question, why are you doing this?” Mason asked.

“I already explained.. I need to get the Overboss back so we can take over the rest of the park.” 

“No, Porter, I mean why are doing this stupid plan? You can always just go crawling back to him and suck up until he lets you back in charge.”

Gage groaned.

“Because I’m not a coward, Mason. Doing that would make everyone see me as weak, just like they did when Colter was in charge.”

Mason grimaced when Colter’s name was mentioned. 

It’d been a while since he died, but Gage could still remember how he had to plead with Colter to not replace him, to keep him around long enough to take the entire park. It never happened, of course, but Gage was lucky to keep his spot in charge. 

“Whatever. I’ll go ahead and send him, and you can do your hero act in about twenty minutes.”

Mason called over a large, bulky Pack member wearing an elephant mask, who Gage presumed was Flick. 

He gestured to the Grille and Gage watched as Flick unsheathed a knife and headed off.

Gage could hardly wait for 20 minutes. It felt like forever, but once Mason gave him the signal, he rushed off to the elevator out front.

Oddly enough, the new blinds the boss had installed onto the windows of Fizztop were closed, along with the new door where the elevator led. 

Once Gage reached the top, he pressed his ear against the door and listened. It was silent, save for some shuffling noises.

Gage felt excitement swell in his chest. Soon, he'd get his boss back. Soon, they'd be a pair again.

He grabbed the door by the handle and shoved it. Tugging a pistol from his belt and lowering his expression, he looked around the room frantically.

Sitting at a desk, with a knife pressed hard against his chin, was Flick. His face was still hidden under the mask, but from his knuckles gripping his legs to the shake in his arms, it was clear that he was nervous.

Riot was standing in front of him with his knife against Flick's throat and his face curled into anger.

"Gage? What are you doing here?" Riot quickly turned to the door. Gage stood still.

"I was, uh, coming to get my gear. And I heard some noises." Gage tried to explain, stuttering a little as he looked back and forth between Flick and Riot.

Riot's grip on his knife loosened, and something seemed to click in his mind.

"Did you.. send him, Gage? Did you send this guy to attack me?" Riot asked, his voice quiet but sharp. Gage gulped.

"No, boss, I- well, I.. I wasn't trying to hurt you." Gage looked at the ground.

"Then what in the hell were you doing, Gage? Sending an assassin to press a gun against my head while I slept so you could come in here and kill me yourself?" 

Gage's mouth was open, kind of like a fish. Guilt weighed on his shoulders and shoved him down.

"No, boss, I wasn't. I sent him so I could come in and save you. So.. so you'd take me back." Gage couldn't help but lower his voice to a whisper. 

Riot stared, and dropped his knife. 

"Get out." He said to the Pack member, pushing him off the chair and towards the door. 

Riot sat down and tapped on the seat across from him. As quickly as he could, Gage went to sit.

"So, you were trying to.. trick me? Make me think that you were the hero in all of this?" Riot asked.

"Yeah, boss. I mean, I didn't want you to get hurt at all. I just wanted to come in and act like I was saving you, was all. So you'd let us be pals again." Gage twiddled his fingers and kept staring at the ground.

"Gage, I.." Riot's voice, surprisingly, sounded endearing. Like he cared.

Something warm spread through Gage's chest, making him tense up. 

Was that.. f*cking love?

In that moment, Gage thought back. Back to the rejection and anger he felt when Riot kicked him out. The pissy attitude he had when Mason interrogated him. The way he got upset when it felt like Riot didn't really care.

Holy sh*t, did he love the boss?

Snapping back to reality, he looked Riot in the eyes. The gleaming red was clear, his pupils small and scared. His face was pale, but with a soft pink glow across it.

Gage stopped messing with his shirt and laid his hand on top of Riot's.

And leaning in, he kissed him.

\-------

It'd been a few months since they got together. Maybe seven, maybe eight.

Kiddie Kingdom had been cleared and given to the Pack, causing a pretty strong uprising of the Disciples. 

In the end, though, they were exterminated the same way the ghouls were.

Nuka-World's next target was the Commonwealth, but it didn't really matter to Gage.

It was a little ridiculous and a little distracting, but the haze of love he felt for Riot was strong. They spent nearly every moment together now, whether it be fighting stray animals or sleeping in the same bed. Gage wouldn't usually use the word, but he thought it was lovely. 

Mason seemed to be enjoying his palace in Nuka-World, often lounging on his throne and taking cat-naps in the middle of the day.

"Shouldn't we be working harder to keep this place stable?" William kept complaining, but the Overboss usually shut him up with a bag full of caps.

Though those first pangs of anger towards Riot were still in his memories, there wasn't any more confusion.

Gage knew he was in love.

**Author's Note:**

> *sigh*  
> raiders, huh?


End file.
